What type of morpheme can stand alone as a word?

A free morpheme is a type of morpheme that can stand alone as a complete word. Unlike bound morphemes, which must attach to other morphemes to convey meaning, free morphemes possess intrinsic meaning and can function independently. Examples of free morphemes include words such as "book," "run," and "happy."

In contrast, bound morphemes cannot stand alone; they must be attached to free morphemes to form a word, which makes them inherently dependent. Derivational morphemes change the meaning or grammatical category of a word but also cannot function independently. Inflectional morphemes modify a word to express different grammatical categories, such as tense or number, but similarly do not have independent meaning outside of their attachment to other morphemes. Understanding these distinctions helps clarify how words are formed and the roles morphemes play within the structure of language.